OUYA rumored to be in early acquisition talks with several companies

A new report from Re/code claim that the Android-based game console company OUYA is conducting early acquisition talks with a number of corporations.

The story, citing unnamed sources, claims that OUYA has held discussions with a number of China-based businesses, including Xiaomi and Tencent. However, Re/code says there have also been talks with some US companies, including Google and Amazon. The report claim that the talks are centered on the staff of OUYA, rather than the console itself.

OUYA made a huge Internet splash in 2012 when it raised over $8 million on the Kickstarter website to help fund its vision of a $99 Android game console that only used free-to-play games. The console itself launched in mid-2013 but the hardware and software got mixed reviews and, more importantly, generated poor sales. OUYA has lately tried to put its game software inside other hardware devices, including Xiaomi's set-top boxes and smart TVs.

What did you think of the OUYA and why did its idea of a cheap Android game console fail to reach a larger audience?

I use my Ouya primarily as a means to play classic games via emulators, and for that it has been great - I feel like I definitely got my money's worth out of it for my purposes. I would love to see it continue being supported.

I agree that Ouya lacked games and the flash of the larger named consoles and unfortunately that's what people compare them too when purchasing. Ouya or Wii? Wii wins hands down.

However, they are still relevant because Google wants into the living room as much as Microsoft does and if they can put together a console that does that then they have a stronger chance (I actually wanted Google to make a deal with Nintendo, but Google and Ouya works). Ouya already runs Android, and if the Ouya team gets access to Google infrastructure then everything is possible.

That said, IMHO, if Google doesn't buy them then, sadly, they are not relevant.

I blew out the Ouya version of the OS and put kit kat on mine and use it as a media box and run emulators off of it now. Its a great box now and makes me hope Android TV is at least as good as this thing.

This is what I see being a problem with kickstarters. People get great ideas and maybe a prototype and strategies promising the moon, only to come crashing down when it comes to making a completely viable product.

I think there are two main factors that ended up causing the Ouya to sell poorly.
1) release timing 2) controller

If they would have released the retail version by Holiday 2012 for ~$60 with "bring your own bluetooth controller" support, it would have sold like gangbusters because most people were excited about the media features; the gaming side of things was a secondary perk.

But since they waited until almost summer 2013; by then we had several other options such as the chromecast that could pull off a lot of the media features that made the Ouya exciting, but actually cost less.

So then the only real reason to buy an Ouya was for the games, and outside of emulators the gaming library was incredibly lackluster. The controller didn't get good reviews either.

They had a chance to become the chromecast and more before the chromecast was even announced, but simply got hung up on the gaming side of the equation. But obviously it's easy to see this in hindsight. Much more difficult to have seen it then.

Lack of titles. Mostly shit titles at that. Any Android game console in the future needs to be saturated with paid titles with little to no in app purchases. Freemium gaming is ruining the mobile game market.

If freemium gaming is ruining the mobile game market then why are developers making more money on it then they did before?
Freemium is a great idea in my opinion. It gives me the option to play a game for free and if someone else wants extra stuff and wants to pay for it they can. I'm cheap I don't like to spend money. So I don't want to pay up front for a game.

Honestly I think it comes down to no play store. If the Ouya had access to all the apps and games, it would have sold a lot more. People would just have to understand that there would be a lot of games and apps that wouldn't work with a controller

They messed up by not including the play store and using sub par spec and taking forever to release. For something that's supposed to be a gaming consoles the specs were very mid range. Good idea, bad execution.

I think the Ouya was a great idea with very poor execution. The hardware was outdated too quickly, the shipping delays and missed target dates killed credibility and the exclusive games were sub-par at best. Good riddance.

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